I Feel Like Laughing, Lord, I Feel Like Crying Now.

Hullo. After last weeks locomotive journey adventure you find a Nobody’s Listening firmly on home soil this week as I take advantage of a quiet house with all occupants adrift in the land of nod. So join me in a brew, kick your shoes off and shove some of these lovely sounds in your head-holes. Although it is Friday night now, so stuff the tea and neck some liquor.

Paul is with us, and on time with his pick for once! This week my very good friend, bandmate and co-owner of the racehorse “Uncle Big-bum” has selected a track from a band who sound-tracked our days spent in an attic.

So c’mon and bring your juke-box money…

Track 1. Cast It At The Setting Sail by Danielson.

****PAULO’S PICK OF THE WEEK****

And here he is, kicking off this weeks proceedings with a track from New Jersey’s Danielson. As I mentioned in the intro there, this act were one of the many bands that we would listen to in-between crafting three minute pop epics at 5 Low Bank Street Farsley. I’d like to think that the choice of music we relaxed to on our breaks somehow found their way into our own music by Osmosis, but truth be told, we did a bit more ‘relaxing’ than music making in those days so any chance of influence was minimal at best. This is a cut from their seventh studio LP, 2006’s ‘Ships’.

Track 2. It’s About My Baby by The Strangeloves.

After penning hits for sixties girl groups including the 1963 smash “My Boyfriend’s Back” for The Angels, NYC production trio Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein, and Richard Gottehrer decided to ride the British Invasion and create a fictional band hailing from Australia, as you do. They scored a massive hit with their second single under the fictitious moniker, that being ‘I Want Candy’ in 1965 and this is the, in my opinion anyway, superior b-side.

Track 3. Backlash by Kikagaku Moyo.

Kikagaku Moyo are a Japanese psychedelic band from Tokyo and their name translates to ‘geometric patterns’. This five piece create a fantastic noise on this, the opening track from their second LP released earlier this year. With distorted guitars backed by that all important motorik beat, this may not be breaking any new ground but it is an excellent example of a genre that is as strong today as it was at its birth an astonishing fifty years ago. Probably even stronger.

Track 4. Open Arms by Elbow.

We reach my Long Goodbye To Leeds feature next. This week, we’re in 2011 and the year I became a dad. Orley jr came into the world in March of that year, the very same week that Bury’s Elbow released their fifth LP ‘Build A Rocket Boys’. The songs from that LP will forever be linked with sleepless nights, the smell of milk formula, worry, panic and wonder and this track with Guy Garvey’s typically heartfelt vocals can instantly transport me back to those early days of fatherhood.

Track 5. It Really Hurts Me Girl by The Carstairs.

We’ve got a Northern double up next beginning with a stone cold Blackpool Mecca classic which caused an earthquake when Ian Levine dropped it for the very first time in 1973. Now credited as the first record of the Modern Soul genre, it was Levine who discovered the record on one of his many crate digging expeditions to the U.S. As it didn’t fit the bill of classic Northern, being that it was recorded the previous year and had a polished, hi-fidelity sound, purists began to bemoan the ‘modernity’ of these new records and the scene split into two factions. All I can hear is music I could dance to all night long but I suppose it was a different time and passions were high..

Track 6. Somebody (Somewhere) Needs You by Ike And Tina Turner.

The second track in our twofer was a big surprise to me when I heard it for the first time just last week. You don’t need me to explain that Ike And Tina Turner were mostly known for their growling R&B heavy soul from the early sixties onwards. This however was a departure and an anomaly, highly polished Detroit style Northern Soul and it is AMAZING! Written by Frank Wilson (the man that brought you ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’), this had been released as a single in 1966 but failed to make any big impressions. I seriously can’t think why, Tina is on top form here and that wondrous voice is superbly suited to the Northern style. A real find this, and a track which will stay with me for the rest of my days. I’m going to stop gushing now and listen to it for the fourth time in a row.

Track 7. Only Grey by Cool Ghouls.

Let’s start with that name, great innit? The greatness doesn’t stop there though, these psych-rockers from San Francisco also craft superb music and have been releasing consistently excellent records for five years or so now. This Comes from their latest release, ‘Gords Horse’ which was initially a casette only release when they recorded it in their van whilst on the road last year. With chugging guitars and an incessant beat, it sails very close to Django Django’s superb ‘Default’ but has enough of it’s own charm and style to win the day.

Track 8. Don’t Let Me Down by Marcia Griffiths.

Our cover star this week takes on the classic Wackers b-side to ‘Get Back’.
Marcia Griffiths is probably best known in the UK as one half of Bob & Marcia, the duo scored a No 5 on the hit parade in 1970 with ‘Young, Gifted And Black’. Marcia began her career in Jamaica in 1964 at the age of Fifteen and has been releasing records and touring ever since. From ’74 to ’81 she was also a member of The I Three, the backing singers for Bob Marley and The Wailers and is now rightly regarded as reggae royalty.

Track 9. The Horses Will Not Ride, The Gospel Won’t Be Spoken by Tom Brosseau.

Tom Brosseau’s new album ‘North Dakota Impressions’ completes a trilogy of LP’s that began with 2014’s Grass Punks and 2015’s Perfect Abandon. Regular readers/listeners will note that Tom is no stranger to Nobody’s Listening, this must be his third or fourth appearance making him contender for most featured artist. There’s a reason for this. I absolutely adore this feller. Close your eyes and take in this track, recorded live, and start adoring him too.

Track 10. Don’t Come A-Knockin’ by Mary Lee Whitney.

Another week, another soul slowie closer. I don’t have much information on this top notch sixties mid-tempo, the internet is drawing blanks save for a few sites offering the original vinyl for sale. What I do know about Mary Lee Whitney is she is the featured female voice on Stevie Wonder’s classic ‘AS’ from Songs In The Key Of Life. Personally, I love the Bacharach style this song has and in particular the string backed bridge to the chorus.

And that’s that then. Another ten tunes to see you right until next Friday when I’ll unleash more amazing pieces of mucus to phenomenal indifference.